Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context Main / MuckMonster

Go To

1%%
2%%
3%% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Please add your example in the proper place. Thanks!
4%%
5%%
6%% Image selected per Image Pickin thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=17012559180.83736900
7%% Please don't change or remove without starting a new thread.
8%%
9[[quoteright:350:[[TabletopGame/PokemonTradingCardGame https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mucky.png]]]]
10[[caption-width-right:350:You're one ugly mother-mucker.]]
11%%
12%% Caption selected per above thread. Please don't change or remove without approval from here:
13%% https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1404492079030138900
14%%
15
16->''Filthy brown acid rain\
17Pouring down like egg chow mein\
18All that's foul, all that's stained\
19Breeding in my toxic brain''
20-->-- '''Hexxus''', ''WesternAnimation/FernGullyTheLastRainforest'', "[[VillainSong Toxic Love]]"
21
22You can smell it from a mile away.
23
24A big, horrific pile of glop. Perhaps it's made of toxic sludge from a CorruptCorporateExecutive's industrial plant, or perhaps it's merely a colossal pile of dung.
25
26But it's alive.
27
28The Muck Monster is a living embodiment of filth and slop, and the GreenAesop tends to be his stomping grounds. Nothing hammers an anti-pollution message home like a colossal, animate pile of (sometimes [[TalkingPoo literal]]) crap. Plants die from this beastie's approach; sometimes animals and even people bite the dust from [[WalkingWasteland being in mere proximity to this abomination]].
29
30Usually, these kinds of monsters are considered destructively evil, especially to the environment, making these kinds of monsters overlap with EcocidalAntagonist when portrayed as such. Compare BlobMonster, which is more transparent and tends to keep itself in one defined and consistent mass rather than constantly oozing and leaving parts of itself in its wake (and is generally less smelly), and TalkingPoo.
31
32For other living piles of AnimateInanimateMatter, see LivingLava, RockMonster, and SentientSands.
33
34A variant of the trope overlaps with SwampMonster, creating a creature of living vegetation and/or mud (usually emphasizing the vegetation); this variant is often ''called'' a muck monster, but lacks the typical association with pollution and toxicity. They instead tend to have physical powers based on their inhuman bodily composition, such as SuperStrength, SuperToughness, and a HealingFactor, [[GreenThumb elemental plant-manipulating powers]], or both. See also ToxicWasteCanDoAnything, which is sometimes used as the origin for these creatures.
35----
36!!Examples:
37
38[[foldercontrol]]
39
40[[folder:Advertising]]
41* The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDKWDkNLi9c Zingy animated icon]] used by British energy company EDF has often been likened, unfavourably, to a parasitical turd-monster. Embittered website ''Website/AdTurds'' has not been slow in likening it to ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'''s Mr Hankey in its relentlessly cheerful disposition while - well, remaining a turd. The advertising agency has responded by making its colour a more orange-yellow rather than brown: but the current advertising depicting a very-large Zingy in the form of a hot-air balloon does make it look like a giant turd floating above British suburbia.
42[[/folder]]
43
44[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
45* Ginta uses Babbo: Alice to dispel this curse off "Gramps" in episode 97 of ''Manga/{{MAR}}''.
46* ''Anime/PantyAndStockingWithGarterbelt'': The very first [[MonsterOfTheWeek ghost]] fought by the eponymous angels is the Big Brown. It's the ghost of a plumber killed by the stench of a clogged joint that became a gargantuan shit beast bent on drowning everybody in crap.
47[[/folder]]
48
49[[folder:Comic Books]]
50* [[PunnyName Tara Infirma]], one of the minor characters in ''ComicBook/AllGhoulsSchool''.
51* ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'': [[LegacyCharacter All eight iterations]] of Clayface fit the trope in some way, although some are more humanoid than others. The worst part is, all of them [[WasOnceAMan were once human]], except for the fifth one, who is a child of Clayface III and Clayface IV born ''after'' they each gained their powers.
52* In ''ComicBook/{{Femforce}}'', Fungi was an {{Expy}} of ComicBook/TheHeap who worked for ThoseWackyNazis.
53* ''ComicBook/TheHeap'' is formed from the decaying vegetation of the swamp, wrapped around Baron Eric Von Emmelman's skeleton, and motivated by his indomitable will to live. Being made of animate vegetation makes the Heap extremely strong and resistant to physical damage. It also feeds by siphoning blood from living creatures and can drain it with its touch.
54* ''ComicBook/ManThing'' is basically a composite of ''ComicBook/TheHeap'' and ''ComicBook/SwampThing'', with the former's characterization and appearance and the latter's origin. A scientist working on a SuperSerum injects his prototype formula into himself whilst trying to escape from some thugs, only to be shot and crash into a swamp; the formula, combined with mystic energies bound up in the swamp itself, transforms the scientist into a non-sapient mass of plant matter and mud. One aspect of Man-Thing that is closer to the conventional Muck Monster is that it has the ability to [[AcidAttack secrete a highly corrosive, possibly incendiary acid as a weapon in combat]].
55* ''ComicBook/SwampThing'' is a SpiritualSuccessor to ''ComicBook/TheHeap'', being a human scientist transformed into a sapient mass of moss, algae, roots, and mud after an explosion in his lab soaked him in burning chemicals before he plunged into a nearby swamp in an attempt to extinguish the flames. This triggered a reaction that transformed him into a creature made of the slimy substance of the swamp. This was until the 1980s, when Creator/AlanMoore instead {{retcon}}ned the Swamp Thing into purely a PlantPerson, and the ElementalEmbodiment of the plant kingdom at that; Swamp Thing had merely absorbed the memories of the human scientist who died, which was part of a ritual needed to spawn such an elemental as himself.
56* Sludge from ''ComicBook/TheUltraverse''. Frank Hoag was a DirtyCop who was killed and covered in chemicals by an explosion before his body was dumped in a sewer. The chemicals had regenerative properties and tried to heal Hoag, but combined the sewer substances with his body, transforming him into a huge mass of living slime.
57* ''ComicBook/WeirdWorlds'': Garbage Man was originally an attorney named Richard Morse. Noticing something wrong with the Titan Pharmaceuticals account, he started investigating but was betrayed by his BadBoss to Titan. Morse was captured, drugged, and experimented on by MadScientist Dr. Clive. Deciding the experiment was a failure, Clive blew up the lab with all personnel still inside to destroy the evidence and silence any potential witnesses. However, Morse did not die. A chemical reaction from the drugs Clive had injected him with and the chemicals in the swamp around him transformed him into an inhuman pile of mobile garbage.
58* ''Comicbook/{{Wonder Woman|2006}}'' sees Roulette employ a combatant ''named'' Muck in one of her unlicensed Japanese {{fight club|bing}}s. A disguised Comicbook/BlackCanary severely underestimates him and is nearly smothered in his biomass.
59[[/folder]]
60
61[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
62* ''WesternAnimation/FernGullyTheLastRainforest'': Hexxus, the Creator/TimCurry-voiced pollution-demon villain, although he was the [[DestroyerDeity primordial spirit of destruction]] before he latched on to human inventions. His forms varied from a sludge-based blob monster to an exhaust fume-based ghost to a ''giant burning angel skeleton made of tar''.
63* Armageddon from ''Animation/TheReturnOfHanuman'' is a monster formed from a volcano, mostly because of the many inorganic trash contained inside and [[spoiler:activated when Rahu and Ketu's staff went inside of the volcano]].
64* ''Anime/SpiritedAway'' has the Stink God, who is literally just a moving pile of sludge with eyes. His smell is so bad that it makes everyone's eyes water and makes all of the food around him rot. [[spoiler:He turns out to actually be a River Spirit, and his filthy state was due to pollution in the river he inhabits.]]
65[[/folder]]
66
67[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
68* ''Film/Creepshow2'' has a large, flat monster which inhabits a lake, resembles an oil slick, and dissolves any flesh it touches.
69* ''Film/{{Dogma}}'' has a demon, the Golgothum, constructed from crap -- specifically, the crap of all the prisoners crucified at Golgotha ([[UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} yes, including Him]]). He's defeated by deodorant (which "knocks out strong odors").
70* Hedorah from ''Film/GodzillaVsHedorah'' (a.k.a. ''Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster'') has to be the most famous example of this trope, and it shows why one must never let alien organisms from a nebula where chemicals that are pollutants on Earth are its food arrive on Earth, lest it [[MetamorphosisMonster grow]] into a giant tadpole sludge demon that can drop lethal acid as it flies. Hedorah comes with a MeaningfulName with a dash of ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin as the name is derived from ''hedoro'' which is Japanese for "Sludge". In all of its forms, Hedorah is comprised primarily of the mineral substance Hedrium, which is also the source of its incredible strength, amorphous body and nigh-unstoppable abilities, including his Hedrium Ray, capable of burning Godzilla's flesh, and his ability to generate vast quantities of chemical ooze without it visibly affecting his size, even using it in an attempt to drown Godzilla at one point in the final battle. It takes a combination of the JSDF using gigantic electrodes and Godzilla powering them with his Atomic Breath to finally bring Hedorah down for good.
71* ''[[Film/TheHMan The H-Man]]'' is an earlier iteration of this, but explicitly radioactive (hence the name). It WasOnceAMan, and now must eat other humans in order to retain its shape.
72* ''Film/MonSturd'' is like ''Film/JackFrost1997'', except the SerialKiller is genetically fused with shit instead of snow.
73* The low-budget 1986 horror film ''Film/{{Spookies}}'' has Muck Men who make [[{{Fartillery}} explosive flatulence sounds]] when they come after people (which presumably caused a bit of confusion among viewers as to whether they're muck monsters or poo monsters).
74[[/folder]]
75
76[[folder:Literature]]
77* [[BigBad Visser Three]] from ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' is a shapeshifter with two forms like this, seen in ''The Weakness'' and ''The Hidden'' respectively.
78* The deities [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clark_Ashton_Smith_deities#Abhoth Abhoth]] and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clark_Ashton_Smith_deities#Ubbo-Sathla Ubbo-Sathla]] in Creator/ClarkAshtonSmith's ''Franchise/CthulhuMythos'' stories.
79* The 1940 short story "It!" by Creator/TheodoreSturgeon is about a plant monster that is ultimately revealed to have formed around a human skeleton in a swamp. The story is generally regarded as having been the inspiration for ''ComicBook/TheHeap'', ''ComicBook/ManThing'', and ''ComicBook/SwampThing''.
80* ''Literature/LandOfOz'': In the first story by Ruth Plumly Thompson, ''The Royal Book of Oz'', the Scarecrow briefly encounters Middlings, man-like creatures made of mud.
81* During the lifeforce crisis in ''Literature/ReaperMan'', one of the [[WizardingSchool Unseen University]]'s ''compost heaps'' comes to life. It attacks the gardener and dissolves its way through the main door before the wizards [[StuffBlowingUp blow it up]] with a bottle of [[BlazingInfernoHellfireSauce Wow-Wow sauce]].
82* The title creature in ''Literature/Slime1988'' is a living lake of toxic waste that eats people and animals.
83[[/folder]]
84
85[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
86* Eva Mudlark of ''Series/TheAquabatsSuperShow'' has made several of these out of anger from being treated as a lowly garbage collector.
87* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E3Gridlock Gridlock]]", the Macra live at the bottom of the Motorway and feed on the gas fumes created by the huge numbers of {{Flying Car}}s stuck in the universe's worst traffic jam.
88* ''Series/MonsterWarriors'': In "Revenge of the Mud Maniac", a giant mud monster is on the attack in Capital City.
89[[/folder]]
90
91[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
92* ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'' has a version of Creator/ClarkAshtonSmith's Abhoth (see above).
93* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' has a number of these, such as the grey ooze and the demon prince Juiblex.
94** A swamp that's tainted by magical pollution can create mudmen, which are ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. Not very intelligent, they try to drown anything that enters their swamp out of an instinctual urge, often destroying themselves in kamikaze attacks as they try to smother their foes.
95** ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'': Moander, a minor evil god, manifests in the form of a gargantuan crawling heap of rotting vegetation.
96** ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'' has the {{Kaiju}} Vorgozen, a huge acidic sludge monster created by magical experimentation GoneHorriblyWrong (or possibly GoneHorriblyRight -- the aftermath of Vorgozen's creation left few clues as to the original intent of the wizards responsible). She warps magic in a wide area around her and can "infuse" herself into the terrain to travel quickly or escape in the unlikely event she finds herself threatened.
97** ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'': The Darklord Malus Scleris rules a domain that is the horror of unlimited pollution made real, and it is filled with these kinds of monsters. Scleris is a pre-industrial version of a CorruptCorporateExecutive; his FreudianExcuse is that his father, a druid, only cared about his work, not about his son, so in return, he hates Nature for taking his father away from him. His MO is control of horrible and disgusting diseases.
98* ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'': City spirits usually manifest as piles of ordinary litter, unsightly but not all that icky. Toxic nature spirits manifest as contaminated water, smog, or ''really foul'' rubbish.
99[[/folder]]
100
101[[folder:Video Games]]
102* ''VideoGame/ANNOMutationem'': The Mother Grub is an enormous blob-like creature composed of highly acidic mucus that'll emit as gas. It can extend it's body to make itself fly and harden itself to perform a RollingAttack while [[WeaponizedOffspring spawning multiple larvae to attack]].
103* ''VideoGame/TheBindingOfIsaac'' has a lot of poo-themed enemies, including Dips, Squirts, and Dingas (each progressively larger and which split into their smaller kin when killed), and bosses Dingle, Dangle, the Turdlings, and Brownie.
104* ''VideoGame/BulbBoy'' has a PuzzleBoss based on this concept. After the protagonist eats the cooked corpse of an evil zombie chicken the resulting bowel movement creates a large worm-like turd monster that must be flushed down the toilet before it eats Bulb Boy.
105* ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'': The Slag Golems enemy group from ''City of Villains'' are terrifying monstrosities of living cast-off metal, shambling figures composed of crudely sentient dross and detritus, eager to pound anyone who crosses them into compost for the island.
106* One of the bosses from ''VideoGame/ConkersBadFurDay'' is the Great Mighty Poo, a literal living enormous pile of poop.
107* ''VideoGame/DarkestDungeon'' has one in the Flesh, a mucky shapeshifting mass of wasted pig meat from the Ancestor's failed summonings. It's been so distorted by the magics used that, unlike the Human/Beast-typed Swine pigmen that patrol the Warrens, the Flesh is straight up {{Eldritch|Abomination}}-type.
108* ''VideoGame/DeathlessHyperion'' has a humanoid-shaped, giant green slime monster as an enemy late in the game, and killing them will carpet half the stage in green ooze.
109* ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'' has Raremon, a crawling, blubbery pile of rotten flesh entangled with random cybernetics. It smells like dead fish and vomits as an attack. Raremon is one of several "garbage" type Digimon, monster who basically failed their evolution. Others include Sukamon, a living pile of feces, the slug-like Numemon, and Garbagemon, which even lives in a trash can.
110* ''VideoGame/DragonsLair'' has mudmen, which unlike the other monsters cannot be killed, only avoided.
111* ''VideoGame/EarthBound1994'': Master Belch (later upgraded as Master Barf) is a giant, sentient pile of vomit. There are also the smaller monsters like "Pile of Puke" and "Stink Spirit".
112* The ''VideoGame/GargoylesQuest'' game ''Demon's Crest'' has the boss "Crawler", a huge mass of melted-looking flesh that takes on a semi-humanoid form after it swallows some bones. It can spawn zombie-like creatures from its body.
113* ''VideoGame/LordOfGun'' has mudmen enemies (replacing the game's usual human {{mooks}}) in the swamps area, where they rise out of the marsh to attack. Shooting them enough turns them back into muck.
114* ''VideoGame/Pikmin2001'': The Smoky Progg is a horrifying crawling cloud of pollution that instantly kills any Pikmin it touches. Not even unpicked ones are safe from its wrath.
115* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'': This is a recurring archetype for Poison-type Pokémon:
116** ''VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue'' has two Muck Monsters in Grimer and its evolved form, Muk. In ''Anime/PokemonTheOriginalSeries'', Ash's Muk was (initially) so smelly that it stank even after it had been captured in a Poké Ball. When he teleported it to Professor Oak's, it proceeded to engulf half the lab and reduced Professor Oak to ranting. Of course, said Muk really [[GentleGiant just wants a hug]].
117** Koffing and Weezing are based on pollution, but they're more inspired by smog than slime, although they do possess the ability to spit globs of slime.
118** ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'' has the garbage Pokémon Trubbish and Garbodor. Their bodies pick up trash as they go, so they're ironically useful in keeping places clean.
119* The Amoeboids in the ''Franchise/RatchetAndClank'' series are a kind of slime monster that walks in circles and says "Nein!". When hit, they split into two, half as small slime monsters (except for [[GoddamnedBats the smallest sort]], which just disappears). The biggest ones will split five times, meaning that you have to kill sixty-three slimes in total.
120* ''VideoGame/{{Shantae}}'': The [[BubblegloopSwamp Mud Bog]] areas are filled with Mud Bog creatures made out of the stinky, sludgy mess that the area is filled with. They either jump around in a blobby mass or pop out of the swampy floors and ceilings.
121* The Tarr in ''VideoGame/SlimeRancher'' are this, being ravenous blob monsters born from when a largo slime eats a plort that it normally doesn't make. They probably have some kind of oil in them to make that rainbow sheen on their surface. Luckily for ranchers and slimes alike, [[KillItWithWater Tarr are easily killed with a splash or two of fresh water]].
122%%* ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}} III'' has some sludge-type creeps.
123* ''VideoGame/WildArms2'' has the boss [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gapGzA_fjw "Drawdo"]], which resembles several dead fish melded together and attacks with every status effect in the game.
124[[/folder]]
125
126[[folder:Webcomics]]
127* In ''Webcomic/TheNonAdventuresOfWonderella'', [[http://nonadventures.com/2008/08/09/the-bitter-end/ Dana tries to brew her own beer and creates one of these.]]
128[[/folder]]
129
130[[folder:Web Originals]]
131* One of the monsters in ''[[http://armorgames.com/play/192/monster-basement Monster Basement]]'' actually is called "Mud Monster". It makes a brief reappearance in ''[[http://armorgames.com/play/2340/monster-basement-2 Monster Basement 2]]''.
132[[/folder]]
133
134[[folder:Western Animation]]
135* ''WesternAnimation/AladdinTheSeries'': In several episodes, the heroes run afoul of the Al-Muddies, [[ElementalPowers elemental spirits]] which are made of living mud, live underground, and are carnivores known to prey on humans. Normal ones are feral, dimwitted, and brutish creatures who tend to attack in mobs; their Sultan, however, stands out because of his titanic size and his incredible cunning and intelligence (not to mention being able to talk), and a fondness for cooking victims (even going so far as to call himself "a gourmet").
136* ''WesternAnimation/AtomicPuppet'': Mudman is a minor member of the RoguesGallery able to possess other beings, shapeshift, and regenerate FromASingleCell.
137* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteers'' has one of these. In this case, it's an artificial organism that's supposed to eat garbage, but of course, when Sly Sludge uses it, it [[GoneHorriblyWrong goes horribly wrong]] and turns into a GreyGoo that threatens to turn the entire planet into one big pile of living garbage.
138* ''WesternAnimation/GoofTroop'': One episode features a CorruptCorporateExecutive who had become a Muck Monster due to overexposure to all the pollution created by his factory. Goofy returns him back to normal with a jar full of fresh air.
139* ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitchTheSeries'': [[{{Mon}} Experiment 505, Ploot]], is designed to collect and absorb pollution and turn it into a toxic sludge to flood cities with. The more he collects, the bigger and grimier he gets.
140* ''WesternAnimation/TheNewAdventuresOfWinnieThePooh'': In "[[Recap/TheNewAdventuresOfWinnieThePoohS1E6CleanlinessIsNextToImpossible Cleanliness Is Next to Impossible]]", Crud is a creature made from the filth under Christopher Robin's bed. A bar of soap acts like kryptonite to him and he is defeated by being sucked into a vacuum cleaner.
141* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'': Abominations are large, purple sludge monsters that serve as muscle for those who summon them. More skilled summoners can also use them as a MorphWeapon.
142* ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'': A group of mud people come to offer Aku a tribute for being allowed to live on Earth (an equally muddy statue of Aku). All Aku really cares about is that they are dripping mud all over his floor.
143-->'''Aku:''' I just had it vacuumed! Out! ''Out!''
144* ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987'': On several occasions, the [[MutagenicGoo mutagen]] spawns these creatures; they have names like "mud monsters" and "Mutagen Man". Basically, the theory is that this is what happens when the mutagen produces something that doesn't have the dignity of resembling a particular animal like a turtle. (Of course, the accidental workings of a mutagen in RealLife are much more likely to produce a monstrosity like this than an anthropomorphic turtle....)
145* ''WesternAnimation/ThunderCats1985'': In "[[Recap/Thundercats1985S01E10MandoraTheEvilChaser Mandora: The Evil Chaser]]", one of the villains is a Muck Monster known as The Living Ooze. Defeated with a powerful weapon of the ancients -- [[spoiler:soap]].
146* ''WesternAnimation/TheTick'':
147** The Filth is a slimy sewer-dwelling creature with, erm, tapered heads.
148** A variation with a snot-based clone of the Tick himself created by the being from the alternate dimension down the hall. Not exactly a blob of muck, but it was made of snot/mucus and, while shaped like the tick, could squish itself into other shapes and use its semi-gelatinous consistency to seep through cracks and around attacks and such.
149[[/folder]]
150
151[[folder:Real Life]]
152* Most of the foul-smelling slime found in stagnant ponds, along the tide line of beaches, and other messy natural settings is made up of mats of living bacteria by the quadrillions. They don't walk en masse, but individual bacteria do move around within their filmy habitats.
153[[/folder]]

Top